Scar Kissed
by Riddicks Raven
Summary: Someone with Daryl's upbringing is bound to have nightmares, this time Dawn-Ray is there to ease him through it. This is a missing scene from chapter 3 of The Walking Dixons.


Daryl awoke suddenly gasping for breath from another nightmare. Glancing over at the woman in bed beside him, he was relieved see Dawn-Ray still asleep. Evidently this one hadn't been so bad, at least vocally. When they were real bad, Daryl would be yelling or even screaming in his sleep. After one such night, Dawn-Ray had asked him if Sophia had been the little girl they had lost. He looked at her with rage in his eyes for a moment, then he saw the concern in her eyes and her growing belly. For the first time since loosing Sophia, Daryl crumpled and grieved in her arms. His wife had her own demons tormenting her sleep at times as well. She would either be yelling at her Dad that she didn't want to go or begging Merle that she didn't want to. Daryl never asked her for details, but knew if both men weren't already dead he would kill them, watch them turn and kill them again.

Easing on the pajama bottoms she had found him, he began to make his way to the back door. Pausing by the small side table, Daryl picked up a crumpled pack of cigarettes, and pulled out one. He picked up his lighter and went out onto the back deck and set in one of the chairs. The cigarette was stale and old but the burn in his lungs was very welcome tonight. Taking a deep drag, Daryl placed his elbows on his knees and stared at his hands. He knew exactly what had triggered this one.

 _ **xxxxxxxx**_

 _ **He had been on watch the night before, and when he had been relieved at day break Daryl had gone home hoping for a bite to eat and his bed. Instead he had walked in on Dawn-Ray attempting to calm down their three year old son, DJ. Instead of the terrible twos he was going through the horrible threes. DJ was yanking on his mama's shirt screaming at the top of his lungs.**_.

 ** _"Boy you need to go back to bed." She had found him jumping up and down on the couch when she had come to fix Daryl some breakfast._**

 ** _"NOOOOOOOOO!" and promptly threw himself on the floor kicking and screaming._**

 ** _"Get up and do what your mama told you boy." Daryl was tired and in no mood to deal with this shit._**

 ** _DJ got up and ran to his Dad and kicked him in the shin as hard as he could. Before Daryl could react, Dawn-Ray had snatched him up and swatted his butt. This was the first time she had ever touched him and in his shock the boy got quiet and his eyes watered up._**

 ** _"You want to be up, fine! You'll set your hind end on this couch and be quiet instead of acting like walker bait! And while you're there, think about how you acted, then you can get up and apologize to your Dad! I don't want to hear one peep out of you!"_**

 ** _They had ignored him for fifteen minutes before he walked over to Daryl._**

 ** _"Daddy," Daryl looked down at him, "I torry."_**

 ** _Daryl saw his trembling bottom lip and teary eyes and scooped his son onto his lap. He hugged his boy tight before sharing his breakfast of cornbread and beans._**

 **xxxxxxxxx**

Daryl butted out the spent smoke and stared at the stars. His scars itched. They always itched after one of his nightmares, tonight they itched as bad as when they were healing. Sighing heavily he stood and went back inside and quietly went into their bedroom. As he looked at Dawn-Ray, with the light of the full moon on her face, he felt tired, restless. Sliding off the pajama bottoms, he eases under the sheet and lays on his stomach. There was going to be no sleep for him tonight.

He was pissed at his father for so much and to a much, much lesser degree, Dawn-Ray for causing tonight's nightmare along with the resulting sleeplessness. Daryl jumped when he felt gentle fingers on his shoulders; not the sleep induced cuddle, but a deliberate caress. The tension in his body nearly had him vibrating. Her fingers traced over the broad scars, and it felt to Daryl as if she were slicing him open. He was about to tell her to quit but fingers were replaced with gentle kisses.

The itch and tension started to ease up as she kissed every inch of them. Then Dawn-Ray moved the hair away from the back of his neck, as if she were looking for something. He relaxed a little more as his wife kissed the small scar hidden in one of the demons before looking at the back of his arms. Daryl wonders why she's doing this. There's nothing arousing in her kisses, just comfort. Slowly she works her way down his back, kissing every little scar she finds, including the one in his left side. The one made by his own bolt when Nellie threw him.

When she pulled the sheet off his nude body, despite the fact she had seen every inch of him before, he felt vulnerable, exposed. Dawn-Ray continued to kiss every scar she found, until she reached his heels. She nudged him to turn onto his back. When he did, Daryl was surprised the scars from the old man's belt didn't itch any longer. Carefully she kissed every scar on the front of his body, ending with the one at his left temple where a bullet had grazed him.

When Dawn-Ray had finished, she rested in the crook of his arm with her head on his chest. The soft cotton of her night shirt cool on his skin. Daryl adored her, had for almost all his life. Now she had once again eased his troubled mind. Breathing deeply he began to drift off to sleep, this time without the nightmares. It was replaced with a dream. A dream of them in the woods hunting. He picked a wild rose for her from a vine growing up a redbud tree. Her smile was like the most breathtaking sunset he had ever seen.


End file.
